Photo By Master Sgt. Ryan Campbell | Airmen and Soldiers assigned to the New York National Guard's 2nd Civil Support Team,...... read more read more
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ROTTERDAM, N.Y. (Nov. 10, 2020) – More than 20 Airmen and Soldiers from the New York National Guard’s 2nd Civil Support Team (CST) deployed to an abandoned office building at the Rotterdam Industrial Park to search for a simulated blister agent lab during training on November 10.
Based at Stratton Air National Guard Base in Scotia, New York, the team is responsible for finding and mitigating weapons of mass destruction across upstate New York. Keeping training as realistic as possible, a 81,000 sq. ft. facility owned by the Galesi Group, a Schenectady property developer dubbed “building 50,” hosted the scenario awaiting the team.
“We’ve had a relationship with the Galesi Group for about four or five years now,” said Air Force Maj. Ron McCarthy, the 2nd CST medical operations officer, about how this training opportunity came to be.
“We try not to do the same venue every time, but it’s nice when we come to this venue, we can just go to another part of the building,” said McCarthy, who is also acting as the incident commander for the training.
The training scenario was built around an individual whose parent died due to COVID-19. This led him to take revenge at the general public, McCarthy explained.
His target would be a local 5k run, explained McCarthy, saying that the attack would be carried out by putting chemical agents into hand sanitizer.
The details of the training scenario help build realism for the team and help guide their actions for site searches, McCarthy said.
A series of events in the scenario led authorities to the Rotterdam Industrial Park to where the suspect worked, resulting in a search of his office.
“This is definitely necessary with all of the different things going on in the world right now,” said Army Staff Sgt. Natasia Cooper, the administrative noncommissioned officer (NCO) and decontamination NCO for the 2nd CST. “To be trained up and prepared, knowledgeable and ready to go if something were to actually happen.”
The training scenario starts for the team when a first responder finds a possible weapon of mass destruction or a lab setup. It is at this point the civil support team is contacted through state emergency management channels.
Once on site, the team sets up a decon area where any contaminated personnel or equipment can be properly dealt with, to include injuries. A two-person survey team in HAZMAT suits with breathing equipment then enters the building. Upon entry, they check every room for levels of hazardous materials and photograph every room, physically marking each room as they go.
When they find hazardous materials, they have the ability to test it on the spot. They are trained in collecting samples and taking them back to the CST’s mobile lab where further analysis can be done on location to assist first responders.
“If it was a real-world situation, being that we train this way, going into it there shouldn’t be any additional nerves or worrying about your ability to actually do your job and do it well,” Cooper said.
Most counties across New York are aware of the 2nd CST’s abilities to deal with such scenarios, McCarthy said. He also added that one of their goals is to keep training in different counties to build awareness about what an asset the team can be.
“Some are very aware of us, some of never heard of us,” McCarthy said. “I’ve been doing this since 2009 and we’ve been all over New York State, reaching out to different counties, we’ve touched every part of this state.”
As a result of this outreach, the team has a presence at many of New York’s biggest and most popular events, McCarthy said.
“It’s obviously been working because our missions have grown throughout the state,” McCarthy said. “People requesting us for standby missions. We don’t just do response, we do standby also.”
Some of the events across the state the 2nd CST has been part of include Canal Fest in Tonawanda, the Rochester St. Patrick’s Day parade, NASCAR at Watkins Glen and the state fair in Syracuse, McCarthy said
“We’ve been pretty active and that’s just from us going out and reaching out to these counties and doing training exercises like this,” McCarthy said.
This training was one of many events that will lead up to a certification event to be held in 2021, McCarthy said. This event, he explained, will certify the 2nd CST in its ability to carry out its mission.
“We’re hitting all of our time hacks, moving with a purpose,” Cooper said. “Practicing and getting the reps in and everyone is doing an awesome job.”
| Date Taken: | 11.10.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 11.16.2020 07:49 |
| Story ID: | 383002 |
| Location: | ROTTERDAM, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 57 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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